Social interactions like +1s on Google+, Facebook likes, comments, and shares, etc. are called social signals.
Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm since late 2010.
Note: Google encourages businesses to build their social media presence as a long-term investment to drive qualified traffic, rather than aiming for short-term benefits like search ranking placement. Matt Cutts, the head of Google’s web spam team has stated that Google takes a cautious approach when it comes to assessing social media signals, as so many things change quickly on social media. Without a perfect ‘map,’ Google is understandably reticent to assign more importance to social signals over other aspects of their search algorithm. In short, Google’s strategy is a sensible one - “wait and see” how things develop over time, as websites that provide true value tend to develop longevity, trust and authority, and these are the sites that Google wants to rank higher in its search engine listings.
Social Signals – Which Social Sites Matter?
Social sites that search engines like Google and Bing look to for measuring social signals include:
With more than 1.5 billion active users, Facebook is the most dominant social media network on the planet. Research shows that an average post can reach over 100,000 users, so even if no one is buying your products or services on Facebook, don’t be quick to dismiss Facebook as an important part of your business strategy, as Google uses data and information from Facebook to help determine your search rankings. In fact, research shows that Facebook seems influence search engine rankings more than other social media sites, like Twitter orGoogle+.
(Number of active Facebook users. Source: Statista.com)
After Facebook, Twitter is the second largest social media site in the world, with over 600 million tweets sent out every single day. Twitter has a significant amount of influence online and places great emphasis on the authority of tweets posted to readers over the amount of tweets sent …
(Over 500 million tweets are sent every single day. Source: Internet Live Stats)
Google+
Google’s own social networking site naturally carries great authority online, even if it has not reached the same level of growth and take up as Facebook and Twitter.
(More people are interacting socially on Google+ every month. Source: Internet Live Stats)
In addition to the big 3 listed above, there are a number of other sites worth paying attention to, such as Pinterest, LinkedIn, Reddit, Digg, and StumbleUpon.
(A number of social media sites provide important signals that could affect your search rankings)
Which Social Signals Should You Be Paying Attention To?
Search engines like Bing and Google track various social signals, including the following:
- Facebook – e.g. how many Facebook comments, shares, and likes a person has, growth rate of shares and likes, etc.
- Twitter – e.g. how many tweets and retweets a URL has, how influential the person retweeting your posts is, trending topics, etc.
- GooglePlus – e.g. who is following you (influential users), how many people are following you, amount and authority of +1s, etc.
- Other sites – e.g. number of Pins and re-Pins on Pinterest, upvotes on Digg, etc.
- Not so obvious signals – In addition to the above, there are other not so obvious factors that can indirectly influence search traffic. These include desirable and undesirable factors, such as age and authority of your social media account [positive], and whether your site is deemed to be of low quality by site reviewers [negative].
As a business owner, it’s not only important to develop your presence on major social networking websites, but also to be able to track and analyze social media marketing in order to improve your business results.
(Using social media can improve your results online)
Monitoring social media activity allows you to gain insights into what people are saying about your company, brand, or services on social media, measure the impact of campaigns, identify opportunities for engagement, help you take preventative measures against the spread of negative comments or feedback by embittered customers, and spy on the competition. Additionally, monitoring social media can also provide you with vital information about emerging trends and what consumers and clients think about specific businesses, products, topics, or brands.
As a tool for business intelligence, social monitoring is invaluable. Using social media monitoring as a form of business intelligence, however, is a complex undertaking, often carried out by a cross-section of people including market research, marketing professionals, digital reputation management (ORM) companies, social engagement and community staff, sales teams, and agencies. Typically, small businesses don’t can’t afford to pay media monitoring professionals to continually track their coverage in the and actively monitor their online reputation.
Fortunately a number of service providers have made available a range of tools that facilitate the active monitoring of a variety of social media channels, allowing companies to identify what is being said online about their brands or products allowing them to react to conversations and interact with online users in a timely fashion.
We have written a detailed article on social media monitoring tools that you may want to check out. For more info, see this article:
(Do you know how to effectively monitor social signals?)
This article discusses a simple plugin for WordPress users for monitoring social signals and increasing your social media influence.
Presenting …
SocialMetricsPro – Social Analytics For WordPress
Description
SocialMetricsPro is an easy-to-install social analytics plugin that is designed to help you grow your social media influence online in an uncomplicated way. It is built on a simple concept – SocialMetricsPro tracks how each signal is performing and returns either a red or green indicator. The user’s goal is to change all red squares into greens.
(Social Metrics Pro provides a system that any website owner can operate … turn reds into greens!)
Colors indicate relative popularity. This simplifies your social analytics with Excel-like conditional color formatting. Posts that get shared the most show up green. Posts with low social media activity are colored amber and red.
The developers of Social Metrics Pro tested their plugin on a network of over two thousand websites over a period of three months. During this period, all they focused on was turning the “reds” to “greens” and then keeping everything “green”. According to the plugin developers, they were able to notice that their top 10 best performing sites saw an improvement of up to 360% more traffic, 410% more keywords ranked in the first page of Google and their revenue increased by 310%.
(According to SocialMetricsPro developers, focusing on improving your social marketing campaigns can affect your search rankings, web traffic and revenue!)
For more details, visit the plugin site here:
Benefits Of Using SocialMetricsPro
Below are just some of the many benefits of using SocialMetricsPro to track Likes, Tweets, Pins, +1s and more right from your WordPress Dashboard on your site:
Ready To Use In Minutes
Social Metrics Pro is really easy to install. Simply upload the plugin file to your Plugins folder via your WP dashboard and activate.
Very Simple To Use
As mentioned earlier, the site owner’s objective is to turn more red squares into greens. Social Metrics Pro tracks and measures social media signals the way Google sees it so you know which social marketing campaigns require more effort and which need to be better optimized.
Select Only Social Signals From Social Networks You Care About
SocialMetricsPro allows you to centrally monitor social media activity from networks like Twitter, GooglePlus, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, and StumbleUpon directly from your WP dashboard.
Social Metrics Pro helps you get answers to questions like:
- Which social networks work best for my site?
- Which social campaigns are performing the best on these social networks?
- Which are my most popular posts?
- And more …
With SocialMetricsPro, all this information can be accessed with just one click.
(SocialMetricsPro constantly monitors the social media sites that you care most about!)
Plugin Features
Social Metrics Pro offers WordPress users with a number of features. Below we have listed just some:
- Quick and simple to install and configure. Be up and running in minutes.
- Widgets And Extensions Ready. You can extend the plugin’s functionality with external and built-in widgets. Access updated information right on your WordPress admin bar, add popular content to your sidebar or anywhere on your site using widgets.
- 1-click auto-upgrade functionality. You can update SocialMetricsPro with a single click via the WordPress Updates screen, or update the manually manually. You can also opt to receive email notifications whenever new plugin updates are released.
- Plugin uses very little server resources. The plugin generates social metrics reports in seconds, using little server resources. The tool also displays the amount of time it took to retrieve the information and the server memory consumed when gathering and compiling the data.
Additional plugin features include:
- Sorting, Searching And Filtering Features: Social Metrics Pro lets you sort and filter data however you like. You can perform keyword searches to study posts related to certain topics, and even filter the results by post type, publishing date, category, or by post authors.
- Export Data: You can export and plot filtered, sorted data and custom queries in Excel for further analysis. Data can be exported in tab-delimited and comma-separated file formats, and imported to the spreadsheet application of your choice.
(Social Metrics Pro is very simple to use … just convert more reds into greens!)
User Feedback
Below are some of the testimonials that plugin customers have written about the SocialMetricsPro plugin:
“Social Metrics Pro is the essential plugin we use to monitor how our content performs on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It’s simple, neat and works precisely as you would expect it. When we work with our clients such as T-Mobile, the .Me domain name registry and others, Social Metrics Pro is the plugin we use to create reports as well as keep track on each bit of content to optimize it for future performance.” Ivan Brezak Brkan, Editor of Netokracija.com, TechCrunch EU Contributor
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”I give Social Metrics a big thumbs up and I recommend it to anyone who’s serious about tracking their social sharing analytics.” James Johnson, Senior Editor at The Inquisitr
Social Metrics Pro – Tips
SocialMetricsPro includes a step-by-step guide on how to optimize your campaigns and improve your social media strategy (i.e. how to turn reds into greens).
Plugin Support
SocialMetricsPro is well-supported, and comes with free lifetime updates and support, backed by a no-risk, 60-day, full money-back guarantee.
Software Cost
SocialMetricsPro plugin is available in two editions:
- Single Site Licensing – This option enables you to run Social Metrics Pro on a single domain. It includes free lifetime updates and free support. Price = $27.00 (one-time).
- Multiple Sites License Edition – This license enables you to activate Social Metrics Pro on unlimited sites that you own. Price includes free lifetime upgrades and support. Cost = $47.00 (one-time).
Please Note: Pricing details of the Social Metrics Pro product can vary, depending on whether there are any promotions or limited-time special offers. Presently, the plugin sells for the amounts shown above. This may not be the actual pricing set by the software seller when you visit the product website and there may be additional upsells or one-time offers after you’ve purchased.
Check the plugin’s website for current pricing details:
Additional Product Information
SocialMetricsPro requires a self-hosted installation of WordPress and can be instantly downloaded after purchase.
We Highly Recommend This
As mentioned earlier, Google has been tracking social signals as part of its ranking algorithm.
No website owner can afford to ignore the importance of social media. Social Metrics Pro solves the problem of how to find a simple, time-saving solution that gives website owners instant feedback on the success of their social media marketing campaigns and guides them where and how to improve their results.
SocialMetricsPro is ideal for beginners and advanced users alike. It tracks Tweets, Likes, Pins, +1s and more right from your WP dashboard.
We recommend SocialMetricsPro if you own or manage WordPress sites and would like to improve social media visibility and see more of your keywords getting ranked on search engines.
To learn more, visit the plugin website: Social Metrics Pro – Social Analytics For WordPress
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